anyon-else - Tumblr blog

anyon-else · 2 months

Text

spiked w/ kaeya alberich, zhongli, xaio – main masterlist

warnings (please read!) | gn!reader, angst, hurt/comfort, non-consensual drug use, implied attempted sexual assault (barely, but i wanted to add it just in case)

KAEYA ALBERICH

kaeya was not one for quiet nights.

he much preferred the white noise and chatter of the tavern to his own lodgings. even after he began seeing you, spending nights with you at his side on a barstool remained his favorite activity. he loved to watch your easy confidence as you chatted with jean or charles, or even diluc for that matter. he just enjoyed listening to your lovely voice over the background conversation of the other patrons.

but there were some nights when kaeya wished he had elected to stay home.

there was a new bartender working tonight. kaeya had seen him a few times, and charles didn't seem particularly bothered by him despite the subpar drinks he made, but kaeya couldn't help his inherent distrust of any newcomer. it always took him a bit of time to get used to an unfamiliar face settling in mondstadt as a permanent resident, and from what kaeya had heard, this one had made his intention to stay in the city for the foreseeable future very clear.

the night, while young, was already wearing him thin. he'd just gotten back from a days-long commission that jean had requested he take on personally. it had been a grueling week, and the only thing he wanted to do when he returned was take you to the angel's share for a few drinks, then take you to bed.

you never elected to drink very much when you accompanied kaeya to the tavern. you'd usually nurse a glass or two of wine, and oftentimes you'd leave without finishing a third.

tonight, you had barely started sipping your second glass when you began looking fairly ill. at the moment, you were slumped against kaeya's shoulder, struggling to keep your eyes open or form a coherent sentence.

"darling?" kaeya asked when your strength seemingly left you. you went limp, and had you not already been leaning on his shoulder, you probably would have fallen off of the barestool. kaeya caught you with an arm around your waist and another holding your shoulder. you muttered something unintelligible and groaned when kaeya shifted so he could look at you. he lifted your face, and gave your cheek a light tap when your eyes began to flutter shut. "can you open your eyes, love?"

"'m tired," you mumbled. kaeya furrowed his brow; he was certain you'd only had one drink since you'd arrived.

he caught charles' concerned gaze from across the bar, but before either of them could speak, the newcomer was stepping forward nervously.

"i can take them to the back," he said to kaeya, eyeing you briefly, "there's a couch."

kaeya raised a brow at the suggestion. from the corner of his eye, he saw charles wince.

"i'll take them," kaeya corrected firmly, scrutinizing the man further when he saw disappointment flicker across his expression.

"r-right. of course. it's just back–"

"i know where it is," kaeya snapped, abruptly standing from his chair and sliding his arms under your pliant body. concern was thrumming through him, and he immediately forgot about the bartender shuffling behind him when you shifted and let out another string of mutters.

"talk to me, love," he muttered as you peeled your eyes open, "how are you feeling?"

"bad," you grumbled. kaeya hummed, pursing his lips and walking as steadily as he could manage.

"was it something you ate?"

"dunno," you said, already fading again. kaeya cursed when your eyes fell shut and you went limp, head resting against his chest and arm hanging uselessly to your side.

kaeya laid you on the couch in the back room that charles had set up for employees. you didn't stir as his arms left you, though he saw your brow furrow when he let you go. he elected to take one of your hands in his as he thought through the events of the night to try and pin down the cause of your mysterious illness.

it was then he realized that the new bartender had followed him all the way down the hall and was waiting nervously in the doorway. he shifted uncomfortably under kaeya's sharp gaze.

"what are you still doing here?"

"i...i apologize, i just wanted to make sure everything was alright–"

"while your concern is very touching," kaeya sneered, suspicion growing each time the man's eyes left his and strayed to where you were laying behind him. kaeya shifted so that your face wasn't in the man's view, "i can handle things."

kaeya saw a touch of annoyance cross the man's features, and the alarm bells already ringing in his head became more frantic.

"unless," kaeya rumbled as he stood, reluctantly dropping your hand so that he could approach the man, "you know something about this."

"oh! uh...no, i'm not sure what happened. i just noticed that they looked rather sick."

kaeya hummed, scrutinizing the man for a moment longer before nodding his head towards the door behind him.

"you can go, then," he said with finality.

"right," the man nodded, eyes wide as he took in kaeya intimidating aura, "o-of course."

kaeya didn't watch the newcomer scurry away. instead, he turned back to where you were beginning to rouse again. he heard a string of words escape you, only catching his own name every few seconds until he was kneeling next to you, one hand reaching to find your own as the other cupped your cheek.

"kaeya," you huffed, breathing sporadic and so panicked that it made kaeya's chest ache, "what's happ'ning?"

"i don't know, darling," kaeya told you truthfully. you groaned, bringing a hand to shield your eyes from the light in the room and turning on your side, pressing your face into the pillows. "i'm sorry. we'll get you feeling better soon, alright?"

"that wine," you mumbled, voice muffled by the pillow and barely audible over the distant chatter of the tavern, "it was...really strong."

that gave kaeya pause. he distinctly remembered the new bartender pouring your wine, then turning towards the opposite counter where kaeya couldn't see what he was doing.

he couldn't imagine that anyone would...

"charles!" he shouted as soon as he puts the pieces together, rage clouding his mind as he thought back to the suspicious behavior, the attempts to stay in the room with you, and kaeya's own gut feeling that something was off about the newcomer.

the only thing that kept him from going back to the bar and wringing the man's neck was your hand holding his. he couldn't leave you alone now—not with that criminal still roaming god-knows-where.

"don' leave," you muttered, making a desperate attempt to sit up and grab onto kaeya's arm. he shook his head, placing careful hands on your shoulders and guiding you onto your back. you were looking up at him with bloodshot eyes, and the fear in them made his chest ache.

"i'm not," he shook his head, taking your hand in both of his and giving it a reassuring squeeze, "don't worry, love. i'm not leaving."

kaeya's chest tightened when your breath hitched, a silent sob rocking your chest. you were terrified—that much was strikingly clear. your eyes were scrunched shut, and if your pained expression was anything to go by, you had a raging headache brought on by whatever it was that you had drank.

kaeya couldn't watch for much longer before he was lifting you up and replacing you on the couch, then setting you down with your head on his lap. you pressed closer to him, head resting on his thigh and fingers gripping his jacket.

"what happened?"

kaeya stiffened at diluc's familiar voice. he looked down at you and focused on the rise and fall of your chest to keep himself from getting too upset over his brother's untimely arrival.

"that new bartender," kaeya grumbled, "he made their drink tonight. i think they mixed it with something."

there was a silence, and kaeya finally chanced a glance at diluc. he was watching you with a furrowed brow, hands clenched into fists and jaw grinding back and forth in the only show of anger that kaeya could see.

"is the drink still at the bar?"

"it should be."

"i'll take it to timeus on my way to the knight's headquarters."

kaeya looked up in surprise, but diluc looked away, very intentionally avoiding his eyes.

"i'll take the bartender to jean. i trust she can keep him in check in a far more legal manner than i would."

diluc breathed in deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. when he opened them again, he looked far more intense than before, and he looked at kaeya with a seriousness that was rarely shared between the two.

"it's my responsibility to know who is being hired at my establishments. i apologize for being so negligent."

kaeya blinked, opening his mouth to reassure him that the only one at fault was the scum who did this, but diluc held a hand up to stop him.

"just make sure they're taken care of," diluc said, glancing down at you once more with a furrowed brow that almost made him look worried, "i'll handle the rest."

kaeya gave a single nod, knowing that any gratitude could go unsaid. he also knew that this sudden show of kindness was less for him and more for you—diluc had always been fond of you, claiming that you made kaeya more pleasant to be around.

while the comment had irked him when it was made, he couldn't exactly disagree.

"'m sorry," you groaned when diluc was gone, sniffling and trying desperately to keep your tears at bay. kaeya's expression twisted, his hand stilling where it had been rubbing soothing circles on your arm.

"sorry?" he repeated, "love, what could you possible have to be sorry for?"

"for inconveniencing diliuc," you huffed, "and making you worry."

kaeya sighed, shaking his head at the guilty look on your face and cupping your face in his hands.

"we just want to make sure you're okay," he whispered, lifting your hand and pressing his lips to your fingers, "none of this is your fault, my love."

you grumbled something that sounded like a disagreement, but let the argument go when your headache returned.

"am i gonna be okay?" you croaked, eyes filling with panic as you thought about the possibilities of what could've been put in your drink. sure, you'd heard about people's drinks getting tampered with before, but it could've been something more deadly. maybe this was a murder attempt to get at kaeya. maybe you had unintentionally made someone so angry that they'd hired this bartender to kill you. maybe–

"you're going to be just fine," kaeya assured you, hands cupping your face so that you were forced to look at him, "it's nothing to worry about. i've seen this happen a few times. you'll just wake up with a nasty headache, but i'll take care of you, yeah?"

"yeah," you agreed, feeling any energy you'd been using to panic seep from you as you sank into kaeya's arms.

as kaeya carried you home later that night, he thought about all of the things that he could do to make that bartender's life a living hell. the ideas he came up with brought him some satisfaction, and he found that he was more excited than he had been in a long time to get to work the next day.

ZHONGLI

zhongli had been alive for many, many years. enough years that he had seen the cruelties that others were capable of. he understood that preventative measures were necessary to keep oneself safe, but he was also painfully aware that those protections were not always enough. those with bad intentions usually found a way around any safeguards no matter how carefully they were designed.

in you, he saw a very careful person. you were well aware of the dangers of the world—though perhaps not to the extent of someone who had fought in wars and survived to tell the tales. you were, however, cautious enough that he knew you were a very capable person.

but despite his experience, this was a first.

you weren't one to drink yourself into a state of incapacitation, so zhongli couldn't deny his growing concern as you stumbled towards him, eyes lidded and legs shaky. you stumbled towards him, struggling to keep yourself from falling with each step. he met you before you could fall, accepting your outstretched arms and pulling you into his chest.

the first thing he noticed upon catching you was that you were shaking. he tried to move away so that he could look at you, but your grip was firm. you were holding him so tightly, like you were afraid of letting him go and facing whatever had frightened you so much.

"y/n?" he asked softly, resting a hand on the small of your back just under your shirt and rubbing soothing circles over your skin. he felt some of the tension loosen from your shoulders and hugged you closer, "darling, what happened?"

the answer appeared behind him before you could even attempt to answer. he felt a tap on shoulder, impatient and insistent. zhongli turned carefully, making sure to keep you steady as he faced the interruption with equal levels of impatience.

"yes?"

"ah, this is a bit awkward," the man chuckled, attention not on zhongli, but rather on you huddled in his arms. zhongli's eyes narrowed on the stranger, and he pulled you tighter against his chest, keeping your face pressed into his clothes to keep it out of the man's sight.

"do tell me what you find so awkward about the situation," zhongli said darkly, "or better yet, tell me why you're even speaking to me in the first place."

the man gulped, finally looking up and meeting zhongli's glare. it must have been the first time he really registered the person holding you, because his eyes widened a fraction and he began spitting out excuse after excuse, each sounding more desperate than the last.

"y'see, my friend has had a few too many drinks tonight. i apologize that they stumbled into you like that–"

"your friend," zhongli huffed, an irritated laugh bubbling in his throat, "ah, well, it's a good thing you've come to their rescue, then."

the man, who zhongli now knew was denser than stone, grinned at this and began reaching towards you eagerly.

"may i ask you what their name is?"

this made him pause.

"well...i don't think they'd appreciate me giving that information out to a stranger-"

"oh, of course," zhongli nodded, "how noble of you."

"right," the man gave him an odd look, but continued reaching towards you, "if you could just–"

if there was one thing that zhongli appreciate about his human form, it was its agility.

he swept you to the side, keeping one arm firmly around your waist while the other grabbed hold of the man's wrist. he only got a glimpse of the stranger's wide, terrified eyes before he twisted the his arm just shy of breaking. the man let out quick, panicked huffs as he looked between zhongli's hard expression and the hand gripping his wrist.

"a-alright, i get it," the man gulped, making a feeble attempt to pull away, "i'll go–ow, i'm sorry! i didn't know–"

"didn't know what?" zhongli asked venomously, false smiles and politeness wiped from his expression. his harsh tone made the man visibly shudder, "that it's not acceptable to try to kidnap people? what made you so ignorant that you couldn't comprehend that that is a crime?"

"i wasn't...listen, i'm sorry, okay? i won't do it again, just let me go. please."

zhongli was very close to breaking the man's wrist, eyes nearly glowing as they narrowed on the man's terrified eyes. however, he paused when you shifted, coughing weakly into his chest.

"zhongli," you croaked, "i think he did something to my drink."

zhongli's fingers tightened around the man's wrist, earning a terrified squeak from him as he tried to pull back in one last, desperate attempt to get away.

"well?" he asked the terrified man sharply, "did you?"

"o-of course i didn't! i just...i didn't know you were together, alright? i just saw that they looked ill, and thought i'd help–"

"your help is neither wanted nor needed," zhongli said with a sharp smile that made the man's face go white. zhongli knew he could be more than menacing at the right times, "xiao."

the adeptus appeared at his side immediately, making the already nervous man jump in fear. the man watched with wide-eyes as xiao approached zhongli. xiao payed no mind to the man trembling in zhongli's grip. he did, however, take note of your barely-conscious body slumped against zhongli. you were staring blankly at something behind xiao, and the adeptus tried to keep himself calm for your sake.

"please watch him until i return."

xiao gave a single nod, gripping the man's shirt and dragging him to a more secluded area of the market. zhongli wrapped his arm further around your waist, pulling you in close before he disappeared from the streets of the harbor.

baizhu did not looked particularly alarmed when zhongli appeared in the middle of the pharmacy, though his eyes widened just slightly when he spotted you in the ex-god's arms.

"come with me," baizhu ordered immediately, turning and moving further into the pharmacy. he entered a room with zhongli at his heels and pointed towards a long table, "put them there."

zhongli did as he was told, brow furrowed in clear concern as he brushed a hand over your cheek. you seemed to be conscious, but barely lucid as you leaned into zhongli's palm.

"what happened," baizhu asked, leaning over you and opening one of your eyes wider to look at your pupil.

"i believe they were given some kind of drug. i don't know what."

"that would explain these symptoms," baizhu murmured, placing a hand on your chest and closing his eyes. his palm began to glow a bright green, and zhongli watched as changsheng slid down the doctor's arm until she was resting on your stomach. after another moment, the glow dissipated.

"i can't tell the exact substance that was used, but it's nothing deadly. they'll just need to rest. it will be out of their system by tomorrow night at the latest."

zhongli nearly collapsed as relief rushed through him. he took your hand and pressed it to his lips carefully, closing his eyes so he could focus on calming his racing heart.

"if it's not too much trouble," zhongli began as baizhu stepped back from the table, allowing changsheng to take her place upon his shoulders again, "could you look after them for a moment? i've left someone waiting."

baizhu huffed, a smirk crossing his lips at the zhongli's sugarcoated words.

"please do. rest assured, they'll be looked after here," baizhu told him slyly, waving a hand towards the door, "and don't bother bringing me any more patients when you're finished. i'm afraid i'm stretched quite thin with just the one."

as zhongli disppeared towards he harbor, baizhu almost pitied the poor man who had put you in such a state. almost.

XIAO

xiao had never enjoyed human celebrations.

he knew that they were important to you, but he just didn't have the patience for them. they always dragged on for so long. sure, he was immortal, but he still appreciated concision.

and the crowds. just thinking about trying to shove his way through a mass of humans made his skin crawl. he'd watched you do it enough times that he knew he would be content to never experience it for himself.

so he was satisfied watching you from afar. he liked seeing you enjoy yourself, even if he wasn't necessarily keen on the types of events that you chose to dedicate your time to.

however, it was neither his place nor his desire to tell you how to spend your time. while he would've been more than happy to just lay with you under the stars, he knew how much you enjoyed spending time with your friends at these little soirees.

but humans were just so fragile. he knew you wouldn't blame him for wanting to keep a watchful eye out.

it was foggy, but that did little to impede his vision as he watched over you from the balcony of wangshu inn. tonight's event had gathered a fairly large crowd to the courtyard outside of the inn, but xiao was careful to make sure he didn't lose sight of you in the depths of the crowd.

in the back of his mind, he heard zhongli's scolding voice telling him that he shouldn't hover, but he waved it away. he was not hovering. he was simply...observing. there was nothing wrong with wanting to keep an eye on humans whose intentions and judgment he didn't trust. he probably would've been here whether you decided to attend or not, just looking out to make sure no one was hurt in the crowd or bothered by some drunkard.

the fact that you were here was simply a coincidence. he was just taking advantage of it to keep an eye on you.

xiao!

the voice that intruded into his mind was panicked, begging for his attention and help. he felt the fear of the person calling him through the word alone. it sent a cold chill down his spine, and he perked up immediately, eyes still on you to make sure you hadn't somehow gotten hurt while he was momentarily distracted.

but you were fine. the call had come from somewhere a few miles from the inn where the abyss order tended to wander. very few knew to call his name in order to summon him, but this particular cry seemed far too desperate for him to ignore. he gave one last look to where you were standing at a food stall with your friends before he disappeared. it only took seconds of searching to find the source of the voice.

as he suspected, the woman was surrounded by monsters. one cryo mage, one hydro, and a handful of hilichurls were tormenting her for seemingly no reason other than their own amusement. rather than unleashing any deadly attacks, the mages released small bursts of elemental power and cackle at the frightened cry that the woman gave as she was hit with a blast of water or ice. the hilichurls seemed equally as amused, dancing around the woman in joy as they watched her grovel and beg that they leave her alone.

"xiao, help!"

she cried his name once more in the same second that he summoned his polearm, throwing it through the shield of the hydro mage with enough force that it shattered, then summoning it once again to destroy the shield of the other. with all of the monsters exposed to the wind, he flew forward and sent the point of his weapon across their throats, ending their lives quickly and painlessly. no need for any more senseless violence than that which had already occurred.

"t-thank you," the woman breathed as she watched the bodies of the monsters disappear, turning to dust as any remaining life drained from their bodies. once they were gone, xiao stepped forward to help the woman to her feet.

"how did you know to call for me?" he asked shortly, slightly annoyed that such a minor incident had called his attention away from the inn. the woman flinched, and he sighed, lowering his head, "i apologize. i just meant that not many people know to call for me anymore. i'm surprised."

"oh! well, i have a friend who told me about an adeptus who helps those in danger. they said to call for you if i ever found myself in a need of help."

xiao sighed. of course.

"this friend—what is their name?"

"it's y/n. they live near the inn, just a few miles from–"

"i know," xiao interrupted with another sigh, "and where do you live? is there somewhere you would like me to take you?"

"just the inn is fine. i'm meant to be meeting them, actually. for the party."

xiao nodded at this small relief—no more time wasted, then. he took hold of the woman's shoulder and teleported to the edge of the crowd gathered outside of the inn. she wobbled slightly at the unexpected travel, but he simply held her elbow as she righted herself while he scanned the crowd for any sign of you. without his high vantage point, it was difficult to make out anyone beyond the border of the crowd, and he scowled.

"will you be alright on your own?" he asked the woman as he let go of her elbow. she nodded.

"yes, thank you very much. i am in your debt."

"it's no trouble. think nothing of it," he told her before he vanished, leaving her to weave her way through the crowd in search of you. xiao returned to his perch on the balcony, scanning the crowd once again for your familiar form.

what would usually be a fairly easy search quickly become far longer than he'd expected. you were nowhere to be seen, and after a third, then a fourth, and finally a fifth scan of the crowd, he took in a deep, calming breath and tried to listen for a call of his name or a sign of your presence within the inn itself.

nothing.

he reappeared on the outskirts of the crowd again before his panic could get the better of him, shoving past people until he spotted verr goldet behind the makeshift bar that had been put together before the party. she was pouring seemingly endless glasses of dandelion wine for the eager customers on the other side of the counter, meeting their demands with a patience that xiao envied.

she spotted him before he could speak, a small smile on her face as she continued to work on taking the orders of the partygoers.

"xiao," she greeted, "i'm surprised to see you. y/n told me that you'd be keeping your distance tonight."

"do you know where they are?"

verr paused, bottle of wine stilling in her hand as she glanced at him. her expression seemed to ask how he had possibly lost sight of you—she was, admittedly, one of the few people who felt comfortable telling him that you were perfectly safe without his constant vigilance.

"i haven't seen them, but they might've just gone to the bathroom. i'm sure they're fine."

right. of course. there were plenty of reasons why you wouldn't be in his direct line of sight. there was no real reason for him to get so worked up over momentarily losing track of you.

he glanced towards the main entrance of the inn. it was vacant of anyone but a few stragglers stumbling towards their rooms, spent from the excitement and the alcohol that had been flowing fairly freely as the night progressed. you were nowhere to be found.

"don't disturb the customers!" verr shouted after him as he strode towards the inn intently, his face a cloud of worry and frustration.

even though you usually pretended to be ignorant of it, xiao knew that you were more than aware of his tendency to hover. you would sometimes tease him about it, but you also understood how important it was that he knew you were safe. if you'd left, you would've signaled to him that you were going somewhere he couldn't see you.

if you'd gone willingly.

the thought had him moving faster towards the third floor where most of the rooms were located. he paused in front of the first one, wondering how much of a scolding he'd get from you, verr goldet, and zhongli if he barged into each room one-by-one until he found you.

it doesn't matter, he told himself as he lifted a foot to kick down the first door. it was just before he made contact with the flimsy wood that he heard something around the corner of the hall: the smallest sound of distress, and then a reprimand from a low voice to remain silent.

his weapon was in his hand before he even caught sight of the two figures illuminated only by the dim glow of the hall lamps. the man who had spoken was towering over a hunched figure in the corner of the room. he looked angry, and he held a limp arm in a tight grip as he tried to drag a barely-conscious human towards an open door.

xiao did not need to look down to know that it was you who was being dragged. he recognized you immediately, if not by your silhouette then by the familiar sound of your voice, so quiet that he likely wouldn't have picked it up had he been human. you let out a pained, terrified call of his name that made the man above you scoff, undeterred in his efforts to pull you to your feet.

in a single, precise blast of wind, the man was on the opposite end of the hall, clutching the back of his head where he'd hit it against the wall and groaning in pain.

xiao's weapon disappeared as he knelt at your side. he lifted your head onto his lap and held it firmly between his palms, studying your expression carefully. your eyes were lidded, and you looked like you were barely hanging onto consciousness. xiao felt anger swirl deep within him as he scanned you, searching for any sign of injury.

the skin that the man had been holding was irritated, circled with a red handprint that was already beginning to bruise. xiao picked it up gingerly and closed his eyes, willing breath into his lungs before it burst from him in an explosion of fury.

"xiao..." you breathed, eyes falling shut with the knowledge that xiao had come for you. the adeptus swallowed thickly, pressing a kiss to your wrist and laying it gently over your chest. he brushed your disheveled hair from your face and stiffened when he caught sight of the dark bruise on your cheek. you had gone limp in his arms, and he lifted you up at the same time that the vile man on the opposite end of the hall rose shakily to his feet.

"what the hell?" he grumbled, shooting xiao a scathing glare that the adeptus returned tenfold. the man blanched at the glare he was given, far more menacing than his own from the hundreds of years of practice that xiao had under his belt. "y-you attacked me. i could have you arrested for this!"

xiao didn't trust himself to speak. his fury was boundless, and he knew that if it was released, this man would be dead within seconds.

him, and most of the humans residing in the rooms surrounding them.

the man looked bewildered, both by xiao's silence and by the darkness radiating from him. he shifted as a thick aura of destructive intent pooled into the room—just a fraction of the rage that xiao felt—and attempted a hasty retreat for the stairwell.

morax, xiao called sharply as he moved to follow the man, i require your assistance.

zhongli appeared almost instantly in front of him, concerned expression from the rare use of his old name becoming grim at the sight of you limp in xiao's arms.

"what do you need?"

"please take them to bubu pharmacy."

zhongli didn't hesitate to reach forward as the adeptus carefully handed you to the ex-archon. xiao kept a hand on your cheek for a moment longer when you were secure in zhongli's arms, listening closely for the steady beat of your heart. when he was satisfied, he stepped back and nodded at zhongli.

the man disappeared immediately, and xiao felt something tighten in his chest at having you out of sight again. he trusted zhongli to take care of you in your vulnerable state, but not having you within arms reach after you'd been in danger was nearly enough for him to forget the man stumbling down the stairs, and instead go straight to bubu pharmacy.

he stood at the top of the stairs for a moment longer before he teleported to the bottom floor. verr goldet saw him instantly—though he knew that he wasn't being very subtle. the darkness that he felt boiling within him was probably consuming the space around him, which was likely for the best. it would help create a clear space for him to do what he pleased to the vermin that had finally reached the final set of stairs.

he vaguely heard verr calling for people to back away, herding them towards the bridge on the opposite side of the courtyard in anticipation of some kind of confrontation.

the man gave a shout of surprise when he spotted xiao at the bottom of the stairs, stumbling backwards and crawling up the stairs like a rat. xiao felt his mouth twitch, lip pulling back in a snarl, but he composed himself.

he took his time making his way towards the man, taking each step with deadly intent that he knew the cockroach could feel. his eyes were wide and filled with a delicious expression of fear that xiao reveled in. he generally didn't feel this sadistic need for blood, but this was different. this man—this...this animal—had hurt you. who knows how many others he'd hurt in the past.

you would be the last that he ever attempted to harm.

xiao covered the surrounding scene in thick shadows, sparing the onlookers from what was unfolding. he couldn't, however, mask the screams of a coward begging for mercy.

it took him little more than five minutes to take care of the mess he'd made of the stairway and contain the darkness that had pooled around him and the man. he was gone before the crowd could catch sight of him.

he was in front of bubu pharmacy in seconds, breathing as deeply as he could manage to keep his ever-festering rage in check.

"xiao," he heard zhongli say next to him, a hesitancy in his voice that xiao rarely heard. he looked up at the man and blinked, taking in the grave expression on his face.

"they'll be alright," zhongli said before xiao could even open his mouth, hands held neatly behind his back. there was a deep, unsettled frown on his face that was making xiao uneasy.

"but?"

"but...they were drugged. baizhu is trying to determine the exact substance that was used, but he said that it will do no lasting physical harm."

xiao felt something in his chest tighten at the thought of you being in such a vulnerable position in the few minutes that he was gone. you must've been terrified...

"xiao," zhongli's voice broke him from his spiraling thoughts—thoughts that were quickly becoming self-incriminating. "do not blame yourself for this."

"i left," xiao said simply, staring through the door of the pharmacy despite zhongli's pointed gaze insisting that he meet his eyes.

"the only one at fault is the man who did this," zhongli continued, "who, i assume, is not longer a problem."

xiao gave a single nod, and he was sure that he heard a sigh of relief come from the ex-archon.

"good," the man said coldly, "that's one less thing to worry about."

xiao glanced up at his former master, wondering what he was still doing here. surely the situation was being handled by baizhu, and with his own presence, there was no need for him to take up any more of the man's time with a situation born from his own inadequate vigilance–

"you're going to give yourself a headache," zhongli tutted, gliding past xiao towards the doors of the pharmacy.

"wait," xiao called, halting zhongli where he stood.

"yes?"

"i–" he grit his teeth, willing the words to get through to zhongli, "i left."

zhongli watched xiao for a moment before he returned to the adeptus' side.

"why did you leave?"

"a woman was being attacked," he responded immediately, "a few miles from the inn. she called my name."

"and do you think y/n would have forgiven you if you'd ignored a woman in need to continue watching over them?"

xiao felt his throat dry at this. it was true—even without the added stipulation of the woman being your friend, you would've been distraught to learn that he'd ignored someone's plea for help to keep watch over you.

but the one time he'd lost sight of you was the one time you'd needed him most.

you hadn't even been able to call for him.

a sadistic part of him wished he'd kept the man alive, if only to make him suffer further, but he knew that would bring him nothing more than a brief, fleeting feeling of satisfaction. it wouldn't change what had happened, and it wouldn't leave you any less scarred by the event.

"come," zhongli said after xiao had been given sufficient time to stew in his own thoughts, "you should be with them when they wake."

when he finally fought past the guilt clouding his mind and entered the pharmacy, you were still unconscious. baizhu explained the effects of the drug to him quickly—in small doses, it caused drowsiness and fatigue. A higher dose could render someone unconscious—much like the state that you were in now. xiao knew anger was still radiating from him, but he couldn't find the energy to try and hide it. how dare someone do this to you. they had no right to even look at you.

"xiao?"

a whisper of his name broke him from his thoughts, and he bent towards you with a gentle hand on your cheek.

"i'm here."

your smile made most of his anger drain away, and he did his best to return it. he knew he hadn't convinced you—you always seemed to see through his attempts to feigning emotions. you showed him mercy this time, likely too exhausted to do much more than keep your eyes open. xiao sat in the chair at your bedside and took your hand in his.

you closed your eyes again at his familiar touch, letting yourself drift off with the knowledge that you were safe.

595 notes · View notes

anyon-else · 2 months

Text

I'm Sorry I'm the One You Love (The Red Room pt.14) | Things are beginning to change—you're feeling less wary of Kakashi and his students, and slowly but surely, you begin to believe the things that they're telling you about your past. Unfortunately, old enemies aren't always so easy to get rid of. (Marvel AU) – spotify playlist | read on ao3

Pairings | Kakashi Hatake x Black Widow!Reader + Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Naturo Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Might Guy, Ino Yamanaka

Warnings | female!reader, mentions of violence, drug use, description of injuries

Word count | 6.2k

(previous chapter) | (next chapter - coming soon) | (series masterlist)

Shikamaru was, by nature, a very observant person.

It was a skill that he'd honed with years of training and—despite his best efforts to the contrary—hard work. Asuma-Sensei had picked up on his skill-set very early in their training and decided that he should focus on reconnaissance and strategy rather than the physical regiment that SHIELD tended to favor for new recruits.

He'd quickly been assigned his first mission—one that he'd been a pivotal part of despite his older team members initially underestimating his skill-set. They'd been unimpressed by his less-than-enthusiastic attitude, but that impression changed when Shikamaru was able recognized a trap that they'd very nearly walked into.

Now he was praised as a prodigy for surpassing his peers and becoming an agent before most were even halfway done with their training.

He hadn't meant to complete his training so early. It was a pure accident that he was now having to deal with the consequences of—said consequences being way more work than he'd signed up for.

When Sasuke had asked him to come help Kakashi's team with a "shogi-related problem," he thought it'd be a very welcome break from the incessant cycle of mission after mission.

He probably should've known better.

Sakura had explained it to him along these lines: you'd lost your memories due to some sort of shock-based brainwashing. You'd also become convinced that Kakashi was the one who had done this to you; however, the reasons and logic behind this could not be disclosed to him. His only job was to play shogi with you and give you the space to open up and become less resistant to changing and unfamiliar emotions. The supposed result of this would be calming your mind enough that your memories could resurface with more ease than if you were feeling distressed and compelled to shut down.

Sasuke had assured him that he'd done research to back up their hypothesis that this would have any affect on you. Shikamaru was skeptical, but playing shogi beat going on actual missions.

Playing shogi with you was, admittedly, more fun than he'd expected. You picked it up shockingly quickly—probably indicating a past familiarity with it despite your initial confusion at seeing the board and pieces. By the third game, you knew the roles of each piece on the board. By the fifth, you'd already developed a fairly solid strategy. By the twentieth, he was beginning to get nervous that you'd beat him.

It was in between these games that you received visitors.

Sasuke was the first to interrupt Shikamaru's attempt to explain the finer details of the game to you. He swept into the room and very quickly slumped into the empty chair next to your bed. You and Shikamaru paused, looking expectantly at the boy, but Sasuke remained silent. He glared down at his hands, which gripped his knees far tighter than he likely intended. You seemed to be contemplating acknowledging him to break the tension that was slowly seeping into the room, but you closed your mouth after only a few seconds of thought. Then you nodded at Shikamaru, and the two of you continued your game.

Sasuke sat and watched quietly as you improved at an alarming rate. All the while, he remained stoically silent. Even when Shikamaru made an attempt to comment on his behavior, he ignored it and continued to watch the board. After an hour, he stood, nodded once in his first acknowledgement of you, and left.

As strange as the interaction was, Shikamaru preferred the peace of Sasuke's methodical entrance and exit to the storm of activity that followed Naruto into the room the next day.

When his friend opened the door, about six dogs followed in after him. Some settled into different corners of the room, but a few caught sight of you and jumped happily on the bed, licking your face and hands while you sat frozen on the bed, hands stilling in midair as if you'd never been confronted by an excited animal before.

Pakkun was the first to calm himself down. He settled on the bed next to you with a huff, and you hesitantly reached out and scratched his head.

"Oh, that one's Pakkun!" Naruto informed you happily, "and that's Bull, Biscuit, Guruku, Shiba, and Akino. There are two more around somewhere—their names are Ūhei and Urushi."

You took note of the names as the boy listed off them off, looking only slightly overwhelmed by all of the attention. Shikamaru figured that the rapid introductions were overwhelming, though it probably helped that there were no new people to meet. He understood and sympathized with your obvious averseness to the abundance of sympathy that you'd received since being on bedrest. Ino had been very strict in her instructions—no unnecessary movement unless she was there to supervise. Shikamaru wondered if this rule was more for Kakashi's sake than yours—the man's absence was glaringly obvious. Perhaps Ino was enabling his avoidant behavior.

Sakura came in later that same day with a bundle of flowers in her hands. You'd looked at them warily, though the expression softened when the girl poked her head around them with a smile.

"You always liked flowers," she explained when you remained silent. She'd carried them in a vase that was now resting safely on the windowsill. When she turned around, Shikamaru noted that she looked more nervous than he'd ever seen her.

"Thank you," you finally said, looking from the arrangement to where Sakura stood at the end of your bed. She shuffled, clearly unsure of where she should go now that she'd completed her task.

"I can tell you about how we met." Sakura said suddenly, the words rushed, "but only if you want me to! I mean, it could help with your memory. A-and I want to make sure Shikamaru has a break from playing shogi–"

"You can tell me," you interrupted her rambling, giving her a strained smile as you scanned her. Shikamaru caught the hint of lingering fear in your eyes and felt himself unwillingly grow more curious about the situation. Sakura, to her credit, returned it, though Shikamaru knew that she had noticed your hesitancy.

Shikamaru left before Sakura began, assuming that her settling into the chair at your side was his queue to leave. The conversation, while being one that piqued his interest, was also one he knew he was not welcome to hear.

He wandered the halls of the compound aimlessly after his unspoken banishment from your room, strolling through corridors and down halls until he heard Kakashi's familiar voice behind one of the many doors he passed.

"–need to have a contingency plan. We can't be sure that we're safe just because he's not attached to HYDRA anymore. He could act independently."

He perked up at the mention of the organization, pausing next to the door and telling himself that there was nothing inherently wrong with taking a break from his walk. It was simply coincidence that the spot he'd chosen made it much easier to hear what was being said.

"I still think it would be safest to leave her with Ino and cut ties," he heard a different voice say. He thought it sounded like Guy, but the words were so somber that Shikamaru barely recognized his cadence.

There was a long pause, and Shikamaru could feel the tension bleeding through the cracks of the door. He leaned closer, eyes narrowed at the light bleeding into the hall as he strained to hear the rest of the conversation.

"You know I won't do that," Kakashi finally admitted quietly, but with no shame in his tone. Only sheepish conviction.

"I know," Guy responded with no judgement or blame. The two fell into an easier silence. Shikamaru waited for another moment, then continued through the halls.

The day you left, Sakura had been angrier than ever before.

She still wasn't sure if she could hold onto all of it without exploding. The depths of it often felt unreachable, but she would sometimes sit awake and let her hatred for Orochimaru consume her. It was those nights that she could tap into the deep, carnal rage that lingered beneath the surface.

While she was in the Red Room with you, she had seen how strongly you felt things. Despite your expert control over your emotions, when it was just her to witness it, you were more expressive than nearly anyone she'd ever met.

But now, she was not a safe person. She was nothing more than a stranger, and all she saw in your expression anymore was suspicion and fear.

And looking at you for the first time in seven months, she'd felt like she was looking at a shell of your former self.

The night they got you back, she mourned you for a second time.

She knew that you weren't gone. Just...lost. It was up to her and the others to help you find your way back to them.

She just wished she could've done something before you were taken.

No, not taken. When you sacrificed yourself for her. She wished that she'd been strong enough to break Orochimaru's hold for long enough to drag you back home herself.

But she hadn't been strong enough, and now you could barely look her in the eye.

Her failure kept her up at night. It was for her that you'd left. For her that you'd given yourself up to the person you feared most in the world.

You'd done more than enough for her in the Red Room—so much that it would take lifetimes to repay all of the debts she owed you—but this had been too much. No one was worth your life.

And that's what Orochimaru had taken. You had survived, but Orochimaru had taken your life from you in the cruelest way imaginable.

After all of the work you'd done to break his hold, Orochimaru always seemed to come back like a parasite. Now it wasn't just Kakashi that you didn't trust like when you first escaped. It was her. You had no one to hold you steady. No one to support you.

She remembered how that felt when she first got to the Red Room. How isolated she'd been in a place that showed her nothing but merciless and unforgiving cruelty.

She imagined that it had been the same for you growing up in a place like that. And now, once again, you were forced into isolation once again.

Sakura could feel herself spiraling into dark, dangerous territory the longer she pondered on all of this. She wondered again and again what she could've done differently to keep you from leaving, but Orochimaru was smart. It was impossible to keep him from his goal once he set his sights on it.

And at one time, that goal had been her. When he first found her, he saw her as an opportunity for leverage. And becase she was unable to stop him from using her as a lab rat, you were suffering.

A knock on her bedroom door made Sakura jolt where she was sitting on her bed, knees pulled into her chest and and head tucked between them. She blinked at the door, not quite out of her cyclical train of thoughts when the knock sounded again.

"Come in," she finally answered, watching with a small spark of hope as the door opened that it was you coming to tell her that you'd remembered everything. Coming to tell her that you were okay, and that you were staying, and that you were happy—

"Sakura?"

She hated the disappointment that flooded her at the sound of Kakashi's voice. Guilt followed it immediately, and she wiped away the tears gathering in her eyes in an attempt to make herself presentable. When she turned on the lamp next to her bed, she saw Kakashi still in the clothes he'd been wearing that afternoon. He'd probably kept himself up doing busy work to avoid sleeping—a habit that had persisted for the seven months that you were gone. Kakashi took a step towards her bed, eyes full of understanding when he saw the tear stains on her cheeks and redness of her eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, taking a seat on the edge of her bed. She swallowed, wondering whether honesty would be better or worse for her mentor, but ultimately deciding that he would be able to tell if she was lying. She shook her head, throat closing as another wave of tears threatened to surface. Choking on a sob, she slapped a hand over her mouth in a fruitless effort to stop the sound. Kakashi lifted his arm towards her in silent invitation.

She launched forward immediately, taking the comfort that he offered greedily. She hugged his waist and took solace in the arm that wrapped around her shoulders in return.

"I'll make him pay," she croaked, gritting her teeth against the anger that surged up once again, "I'll kill Orochimaru myself."

No response came, but Sakura knew that Kakashi shared her sentiments. She had seen his anger herself many times in the past seven months—both for you and for herself. She saw it in his reactions to Orochimaru's name—a tense, silent rage that seemed to permeate through the air. She saw it when he sparred with Guy, who, to his credit, fought back with an understanding of Kakashi that very few people had.

He tried to contain it around her, Sasuke, and Naruto, but they all saw it. There was only so much he could hide from them—especially when they all felt similar fury.

Sakura hadn't seen Sasuke so worked up over anyone but his brother.

"Will we ever get her back?" Sakura asked weakly, pressing herself further into the comfort that Kakashi offered. "What if she never remembers us?"

Kakashi was silent, but his thoughts were louder than any words would've been. Sakura knew that he'd been asking himself the same question since they found you, wondering if your memories were even within reach anymore.

"Then we'll make sure that her new memories of us are even better."

You are safe.

It was not an easy thing to convince yourself of, but it was slowly feeling like a more manageable task. When you'd first woken up in a dark, unfamiliar room with a bullet hole in your chest and no memory of what had happened, you would've laughed at the idea of being safe. You'd been shot, and the perpetrator was likely still close enough to be a threat.

Then you'd woken up a second time with straps holding your wrists and ankles down and a vague memory of Kakashi supporting your body as you fell out of consciousness. Yet the voice in your head that had been continuously screaming danger had become a bit quieter.

That voice had once consumed your mind with its insistence, but not even when Kakashi willingly came into your hospital room did it rise to the same level as before. It didn't incite anything close to the amount of fear that you'd felt when Kakashi—the other Kakashi—had been using you as a lab rat.

Panic, however, had mounted when Ino suggested that she leave you to talk to Kakashi alone. No matter how different this Kakashi seemed from the one you knew, that didn't change the fact that you had no idea who he was. This could've been an elaborate trick meant to lower your defenses.

But if that was the case, then Kakashi was an exceptional actor.

When you met the three younger agents, you were puzzlingly relieved. It was an immediate reaction to the confirmation that they were all safe and unharmed. Your initial confusion because of these feelings slowly dissipated as it became clear how close you had been to them before you lost your memories. And the longer you spent with them, the more familiar they become.

The same was not true of Kakashi. His was the only face that still made you want to run from the room, afraid that he had switched back to his old, cruel self. After the first couple of days, he stopped coming all together.

Ino had told you enough of the truth of what had been done to you that you knew you were missing significant portions of your past. But she'd had a hand in your suffering. Despite the fact that she had tried to help you get through the experiments as painlessly as possible, she'd still helped hold you down.

Your relationship with Ino did not have any trust. She had simply been your most immediate source of survival after Orochimaru abandoned you, and you still had trouble believing anything that she told you.

So when she tried convincing you that the Kakashi who tortured you wasn't the real Kakashi, and was instead a man named Orochimaru, you'd had a very hard time believing that she was telling you the truth out of the goodness of her heart.

Then you heard it from Shikamaru. He told you that he'd known Kakashi for as long as he could remember, and that he saw the man as something of a mentor. And during Sasuke's second visit, he'd broken his previous silence and told you that, no matter what Orochimaru had tried to convince you of, Kakashi was one of the kindest people he knew.

Naruto told you that Kakashi would wait for you to remember him no matter how long it took.

And despite your hesitance to listen to people who were essentially strangers, the look in their eyes paired with your subconscious inclination to trust them made it hard to dismiss their words.

You are safe.

You tried to convince yourself that you were in no danger. To listen to what these people told you and what you seemed to already subconsciously believe. But whenever you heard the sound of the doorknob opening and the quiet squeak of hinges that sounded just a little too much like the ones from that room, you felt terror at the idea that it was Kakashi—the other Kakashi—coming to finish what he'd started.

Constantly waiting for him to enter and finally kill you felt like waiting for a snake to sink its fangs into you.

You are–

It had become easy to lose track of the days and nights with each one that passed in the hospital room. Ino claimed that extended bedrest was to help you recover from your injury despite your continued insistence that you were fine after nearly a week of healing.

You suspected that the decision had more to do with your outburst days earlier than recovery. Especially since Ino had never been this concerned about your injuries when she helped cause them.

Tonight, the hospital room was especially suffocating.

The feeling was enough of a motivator for you to rise to your feet, albeit slowly, and approach the row of windows that lined the wall to the left of the bed. Only moonlight illuminated the courtyard that stretched out on all sides of the compound, but the night was clear enough that you could see the trees on the opposite side of the field. The branches twisted and jerked back and forth as wind whipped through the leaves. The howls and moans that carried to you almost felt like an omen, but you shook the thought away. Most days, everything felt like an omen.

The room was beginning to smother you, and the lingering smell of antiseptic that clung to the bedsheets had given you a days-long headache.

You turned away from the window with a shudder, unable to shake the uneasiness hanging on your shoulders. You hesitated next to your bed; maybe the best thing to do would be to sleep this off. Leaving the room now wouldn't do you any good, but something felt off.

You left the room hesitantly, moving into the dimly lit hallways and looking down either side, not sure exactly what you were expecting. You were tense, and the tightness of your muscles was causing a dull throb to build in your chest. You ignored it and began to walk towards the common area. It was the same path you'd taken the first night, and you felt a twinge of guilt over your actions when you passed the room that you now knew to be Kakashi's.

You paused in front of the door, glancing at it in a moment of consideration. With a sigh, you moved on, brushing away the déjà vu before you could ponder on it for too long.

Something's wrong, a voice in your head insisted, urging you forward.

The kitchen was empty. The only light came from the dim glow of a lamp above the oven. You took a long, careful look around the room as panic began to take root in your chest. You couldn't pinpoint the cause of it, but your gut told you that the feeling was not something to be ignored.

A creak of a floorboard in the hall made you freeze, and you darted to the wall next to the doorway, pressing yourself against it and holding your breath as quiet footsteps made their way towards you. You took a deep, steadying breath when a shadow appeared in the doorway, then lunged from your hiding place when a figure stepped into view. With an arm over their chest and a hand gripping their wrist, you slammed them against the doorframe with a scowl and glared at the surprised, yet somehow unconcerned expression on Kakashi's face.

With a blink, you released your pent-up anxiety in a heavy exhale and loosened your grip on Kakashi's wrist. He waited as your gathered yourself, endlessly patient despite his precarious position pressed against the wall.

"Sorry," you finally murmured, stepping away from him and wiping your sweaty palms on your pants, "I thought you were...someone else."

"Me too."

You glanced at Kakashi questioningly, but he was looking at you with the same expression.

"What are you doing out here?" he finally asked, taking a tentative step into the room, then another when you remained relaxed. "It's late."

You swallowed, wondering if you should voice your concerns to Kakashi. You weren't even sure what you were concerned about. All you knew was that your gut was telling you that something was wrong.

"I felt...something seems off."

"Yeah," Kakashi said quietly, "it does."

So he feels it too, you thought to yourself, closing your eyes with resigned acceptance. The recovery that Ino had been so concerned about would have to be put on hold for the night.

"I feel like someone's watching me," you told him as he strode further into the room. He turned and met your eyes. "Why are you out here?"

"I couldn't sleep," he responded. When he saw you eyeing his mask, he pulled it down to his neck and rubbed a hand over his mouth. "I've been feeling...paranoid these past few nights."

You tried not to get distracted by his now exposed features, but it was hard when they were previously such a mystery to you. Before you came here, you often wondered what Kakashi looked like under his mask. Most of the time, the image you created wasn't very flattering.

But the face that you were looking at now was putting you at ease. Rather than the fear and disgust you always expected to feel in the event that you saw what Kakashi looked like, all you felt now was a familiar sense of comfort and safety.

"How does your chest feel?" Kakashi asked after a moment, nodding at the hand that you were holding over the healing wound. You removed it, attempting to relax your body despite the low throbbing that was slowly spreading to your shoulder.

"Fine," you responded, brushing the question off. It was nothing you couldn't handle. Nothing you hadn't had to deal with before.

It was healing better than other wounds you'd received from supposed allies.

You paused at the image that flashed in your mind. You saw yourself looking in a mirror, shirt torn to expose an ugly wound on the opposite side of the one that was currently healing. The edges of the bullet-wound were puckered and swollen, and the rudimentary stitches you'd given yourself looked like they were doing more harm than good. You felt the phantom touch of your own fingers on your chest, poking and prodding at the stitches in the hopes that they would hold for the remainder of the mission.

You felt for the scar over your shirt, unsurprised when your fingers moved over the uneven ridges of the healed skin.

You reached further for more information, but your mind went frustratingly blank.

A quiet, nearly inaudible hiss broke you from your thoughts. It came from above you, and you ducked down as if a bullet was flying over your head in slow motion. Kakashi started as well, head on a swivel as he searched for the source of the sound.

"The vents," he said with wide eyes as he lifted his mask back over his nose, "don't breath in. Something's being released into the air."

You pulled your shirt over your nose, automatically switching to a more shallow breathing pattern. Your body began operating on autopilot, carrying out subconscious instructions to counteract the speed of the gas's affect.

"Is it just in this room?" you asked quickly, counting the vents the surrounded you, "or is it everywhere?"

The subjects of your concern occurred to Kakashi in the next moment, and he began making a break towards the hall that led to his students' rooms.

He didn't get far before he stumbled, letting out a cough and breathing deeply to try and steady himself. He made another attempt to reach the door, but his legs clearly weren't responding to his desperate commands.

You watched in silence as he struggled, eyes wide as you considered your options.

A large, loud part of you screamed at you to move. It begged you to help Kakashi and go with him to check on his students. To make sure everyone was safe before you yourself inevitably fell victim to whatever was spreading through the air.

But a smaller, yet still strong part of you reminded you of the opportunity that this gave you.

You could kill him here, it said, grinning wickedly at the idea, then all of this would be over. You could leave and forget this place. Forget the pain he's caused you.

It was the same voice that had forced you to stay sane each time electricity ran rampant in your body. It was the voice that had kept you alive through pure, burning hatred.

Hatred for the man who was beginning to give in to unconsciousness, completely vulnerable to attack.

That voice came from deep inside of you. It was the part of you that still didn't believe in the story that Kakashi and the others had told you.

The part of you that still thought of Kakashi as an enemy.

You approached him after a long moment of deliberation, and he looked up with lidded eyes. Despite the lethargy that was quickly taking root in his body, he still recognized the look in your eyes. They held an uncertainty that could only mean that you weren't exactly sure what to do with him now that he was completely at your mercy.

"Make sure," he croaked, swallowing and fighting to catch his breath from the effort of fighting against unconsciousness, "make sure they're safe. Please."

No pleading for his own life. No final request for mercy. With those words, his eyes fell shut, and he went limp.

You stared at him for a very long moment, jaw tight and eyes fixed on his hand, which was reaching towards the hall that he had so desperately tried to reach.

It would be so easy...

After a final moment of hesitation, you knelt at his side and lifted his arm over your shoulder. Despite the pain that it sent to your chest, you hefted a majority of his bodyweight onto your back and shoulders and began dragging him towards his room.

You kicked the door open and huffed, finally beginning to feel the effects of the gas that was still filling the room. You grit your teeth and pushed forward, turning your back to his bed and dropping him rather ungracefully onto the unkempt blankets. With a final, conflicted look at his unconscious form, you slipped from the room and continued down the hall.

A desperate, strained call of your name echoed off the walls, and you turned at the same time that Ino rushed forward, finally spotting you through the haze that the gas was causing.

"Finally," she huffed, "listen to me—I know you don't remember, but this shit that's in the air is something that Orochimaru uses. He's here, somewhere in the building."

Ino must've seen the panic that flashed across your expression, because she began shaking her head, gripping you by the shoulders and giving you a hard shake.

"No. Don't panic. Listen to me—I know you don't remember this, but we used to do training exercises while under the influence of stuff like this. We have a strong tolerance, so it'll take a while for it to slow us down. Even longer for it to knock us out completely. Depending on how much he has, we might even stay conscious."

"You said he's powerful," you countered, voice void of any emotion, "he'll have people with him."

"Not anymore," Ino said with a laugh that almost sounded manic. You felt a twinge of worry and wondered if this gas could have psychological effects, "all he has is Kabuto now. We can take them. We just have to stay awake."

Her voice was becoming more and more strained the longer she rambled. Now that you really looked at her, Ino looked...terrified. You had never seen that expression on the girls face—she was normally so stoic, never letting go of the mask that kept her safe from scrutiny.

Now, that mask had shattered, and you could see through it clear as day. She was looking around wildly, as if Orochimaru would jump from one of the many doors in the hall at any moment.

You wouldn't be surprised if she was having some kind of flashback. A flashback to something that you couldn't remember.

"Ino," you snapped, gaining her attention immediately. She whipped her head towards you, wide eyes searching yours, "Kakashi is already unconscious. We have to get the others to the same room so we can protect them."

A reminder of the four trainees that still remained in the building seemed to get through to Ino, and she nodded firmly.

"Shikamaru is staying on the opposite side of the building, closer to your room," you reminded her, trying to remember the exact location from the explanation that Sakura had given you of the layout of the compound the day before, "go get him and bring him to Kakashi's room. Once we're all in one place, we can make sure Orochimaru doesn't get to them."

Ino swallowed, then nodded again, backing up with a final glance towards Sakura's room before she took off towards the opposite hall.

When she was gone, you turned back towards the first of the three doors in this hall. The first was Naruto's, and though you expected the sight that greeted you, you still felt your fear spike at the sight of the boy unconscious in the middle of his floor. It was clear that he'd tried to get out of the room before it was completely flooded with gas, but he hadn't made it far.

The gas was more concentrated in the smaller space, and you choked on a cough as some of it seeped through the thin fabric of your shirt. Naruto was far lighter than Kakashi, so you had little trouble lifting him over your shoulder and carrying him to Kakashi room. He groaned when you dropped him on the bed next to Kakashi, but his eyes stayed shut.

You closed your eyes and willed the burning in your chest to dull. You could feel your skin pulling at the stitches holding your wound closed and hoped that you'd be able to get everyone in one place before they snapped.

When you reentered the hall, Ino had returned with Shikamaru. She was dragging him with an arm around his waist, nearly buckling under his weight as her strength bled away.

"Watch over them. I'll get the others, and then you can rest."

Ino looked as if she wanted to argue, but closed her mouth when she stumbled under Shikamaru's increasing weight. With a resigned nod and one fleeting, concerned glance in your direction, she disappeared into Kakashi's room.

You grit your teeth when another wave of dizziness hit you, making your body feel twice as heavy as it tried to drag you to the ground. Still, you used the wall as support and dragged yourself to the second door.

Sasuke's room was next, and you gave a frustrated shout when you found his door locked. You stumbled back, wondering if you had enough strength left to kick the door down.

The lock was probably strong—under normal circumstances, a few hits might've been enough, but under the effects of whatever was seeping into your system, it would be a miracle if you got it open at all.

With this fact in mind, you steadied yourself, hands braced on the wall to propel yourself forward in a desperate attempt to get to the boy on the other side.

At the same moment that you launched yourself towards the door, it unlocked with a quiet click.

You stumbled forward, letting out a relieved laugh when the doornob twisted with ease.

You had to give the door a solid shove to get it open. Sasuke was slumped against the other side of it, and you shot forward to keep him from falling backwards into his bookshelf. He was unconscious by the time you got to him, likely having used his last bit of strength to reach the door.

He's a strong kid, you reminded yourself, remembering what Naruto had told you about his friend's determination to become stronger.

Ino was immobile when you deposited Sasuke on Kakashi's other side. Her eyes were half open, and she strained to stay awake to make sure she wasn't caught off guard while you were gone. She tilted her head at your entrance, grimacing when you braced yourself against the doorframe. Her eyes fell to your chest, and you followed her gaze to the blood spreading across your shirt. Again.

"I'm gonna kill you if you rip your stitches again," she muttered, the words barely above a whisper.

"It's fine," you huffed in response, "just one more."

Sakura's room was on the far side of the hall, and you tripped over yourself when you saw pink hair spilling from her room in an unruly mop.

She'd gotten as far as the doorway, and her hands were braced against the frame in what must've been her final attempt to pull herself forward.

Don't pass out, you chanted to yourself, panic beginning to set in as your vision went blurry, not yet.

You stumbled to your knees in front of her, pulling her arm towards you with as much strength as you could gather. Your knees were shaking as you pushed yourself off of the ground, and your arms felt lifeless when you made a desperate attempt to lift her up.

"Come on," you muttered, "come on."

"I won't tolerate your failure," a familiar voice whispered in your ear. You turned towards the sound deliriously, but found the space next to you empty. The voice continued, "and you'll learn not to tolerate it either."

It was the same voice as the one from your dream all those nights ago. The voice of the black-haired man that you now knew to be Orochimaru.

"Now get up," he hissed, his voice emerging from the depths of your mind. The voice surrounded you, feeding you the words like venom, "and prove to me that you deserve to be a Black Widow."

The command was spit at you with a force that should've made you falter, but you felt a welcomed spike of fear-induced adrenaline rush through you. You wrapped a weak arm around Sakura's waist and grit your teeth under her weight, then forced yourself to stand.

When you reached Kakashi's room, you couldn't keep from collapsing to the ground. You wrapped your arms securely around Sakura to cushion her from the fall and slumped back against Kakashi's closed door. It slammed shut behind you, and you reached back blindly to lock it.

Ino was unconscious now, and you knew it wouldn't take long for you to follow her.

If Orochimaru really was in the building, then you suspected that one door wouldn't keep him out, but fighting against unconsciousness was becoming painful now. You felt it pulling at you, making your body heavier and heavier under Sakura's weight.

You hugged the girl closer, shielding her as best you could with your body. After one final glance towards the rest of the room's inhabitants, the adrenaline drained from your body, and the pain in your chest faded as your eyes fell shut.

Author's note | i feel like i say this every chapter but the end of this one went through so many rewrites. i know what will happen in the next chapter, but getting from point a to point b was a STRUGGLE, so i really hope you guys like it!

things are beginning to wrap up for this part of the series, but don't forget that this is not the end of this story!! if you've been following it for a while, there will be a second series that picks up where this one will leave off.

i'm sorry for the longer wait for this chapter, i had a period of writers block at the beginning of the year and school has started again so i'm very busy, but i'm hoping i can get back to a regular posting schedule (generally once a month). anyways, let me know what y'all thought, and don't forget to leave me some love!

title is from "I'm Your Man" by Mitski

#kakashi #kakashi x reader #kakashi x you #kakashi x y/n #kakashi imagine #kakashi hatake #kakashi hatake x reader #kakashi hatake x you #kakashi hatake x y/n #kakashi hatake imagine #naruto #trr #emwrites

23 notes · View notes